Providing affordable housing, retaining professors and continuing campus renovations are top concerns for the six candidates running in the Nov. 6 election for three seats on the College of Marin Board of Trustees.

Two veteran incumbents on the board are seeking re-election, facing four challengers who have a range of experience, including two college professors, one former student and one community activist.

Incumbents Wanden Treanor, 63, a Greenbrae resident, and Diana Conti, 70, of Mill Valley, are defending their seats. Trustee Brady Bevis of Novato is not seeking a second term, leaving a vacant seat.

The challengers include newcomers Suzanne Brown Crow, a retired attorney of Novato; Andrew Cullen, an environmental health professional of San Rafael; Lagunitas resident Robert Ovetz who is a lecturer at San Jose State University and Novato resident George Rothbart, an adjunct math professor at College of Marin.

Crow, 68, said she wants to be the voice for Novato and help guide the future for the Indian Valley campus.

“The idea is that Novato has half of the K through 12 students in the county but they don’t really consider going to College of Marin,” she said. “There needs to be someone there who will advocate for Novato kids who are in Novato schools and for all the senior citizens who love going there (to the Indian Valley campus).”

Crow said she is pleased with the renovations taking place, including new classrooms, the Jonas Center and aquatic center, and hopes that the board will find room on the Indian Valley campus for workforce housing for college faculty and staff.

Cullen, 26, grew up in Lucas Valley and graduated from Redwood High School. Cullen was a College of Marin student for three years and also worked as a laboratory technician on the campus for two years.

Cullen said he is concerned about the direction the board is taking the voter-approved Measure B funding and “how to balance the planning for the Indian Valley campus,” improving student enrollment and reducing the number of years it takes students to graduate or earn a certificate from the college.

He also said that from his experience, “the staff, faculty and employee relations are very poor in the administration and that needs to be addressed as a top priority.

“You’ve got to retain top talent to serve the students in the community,” he said.

After teaching at COM for more than a decade, Ovetz said the board “needs a perspective of a recent faculty member,” pointing out that a drop in student enrollment and Measure B spending compelled him to run.

Ovetz said he proposes “to make College of Marin the first tuition-free community college in California.

“We are a basic aid community college: we don’t depend on the state for hardly any funding,” he said. “So we keep the property taxes and that’s what funds the college. Our funding has consistently increased, whereas the enrollment has dropped, so there is actually more money available for fewer students.”

Like Ovetz, Rothbart said that his experience as a professor on campus has given him insight of the interworkings of the college administration. But Rothbart said that his priorities lie in serving the students to ensure that staff and faculty are up-to-date on the latest technologies and that students receive a comprehensive education that will land them jobs.

He said he is running “to do what I do on the board level what I do for the students on the classroom level: to give quality education to all students.”

Conti, who is seeking her third term and Treanor her fourth, have similar goals, such providing affordable housing for staff and faculty, developing both campuses so that it benefits the students but also the community. They said the board is exploring options to potentially build housing at the Indian Valley campus, and off campus in Kentfield.

Both are saying that the board is on the right trajectory, but personally, as veteran members, they have some unfinished business.

“The reason that I’m running again is that everything that I wanted to see happen when I ran the first time is well on its way to becoming realized,” Conti said. “It’s finally becoming the college that I hoped it would be when I ran the first time.”

Conti said the board has been successful in paying down the unfunded pension debt and getting the school into “strong fiscal shape.” She also talked about successful programs such as College of Marin Providing Access and Supporting Success, or COMPASS, a program that is aimed at minimizing barriers for high school students who typically would not go to college or would struggle to get to college.

Treanor said that the college is struggling to retain teachers because the cost of living is so high, and after a few years, they seek jobs in more affordable areas.

Treanor cites her accomplishments as a board member, such as helping to shepherd more than $500 million in voter-approved bonds to bring new life into the college campus.

“I think I’ve made a big difference on the board in the time that I’ve served, in particular because when I came in, the facilities were abysmal and we didn’t have any money to deal with it,” she said. “But the board at that time didn’t think it would be possible to pass a countywide bond.

“Eventually I said, tell me when we’ve failed, don’t tell me before we try,” she said. “And obviously we have been successful twice now,” referring to the voter-approved measures C and B.

Suzanne Brown Crow

Age: 68
Occupation: retired attorney
Education: Bachelor’s of arts from Duke University; law degree from the University of California Hastings College of Law.
Experience: Past president of the League of Women Voters in Connecticut; Novato Parks and Recreation commissioner.

Andrew Cullen

Age: 26
Occupation: Environmental health professional
Education: Bachelor’s of science degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in public health.
Experience: Former College of Marin student and former COM laboratory technician. (Not available for photo)

Robert Ovetz

Age: 51
Occupation: Lecturer at San Jose State University
Education: Ph.D. in political sociology from University of Texas at Austin.
Experience: Committee member of Lagunitas School District, former political science lecturer at College of Marin.

George Rothbart

Age: 73
Occupation: Math lecturer at College of Marin
Education: Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.
Experience: Former board member of the Marin Food Bank.

Wanden Treanor

Age: 63
Occupation: Attorney
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Chico State and a law degree from New College of California
Experience: Has served on the COM board since 1996, served on the Marin Education Fund board, former president of the Marin County bar, former president of Planned Parenthood of Marin.

Adrian Rodriguez covers transportation, San Rafael and the Ross Valley for the Marin IJ. He also writes the weekly business column Movers & Shakers, which appears in Friday's paper. Reach the author at arodriguez@marinij.com or follow Adrian on Twitter: @adrianrrodri.